Nico Daimen
by Katricia17
Summary: Nico was hiding something from his district. It wasn't an issue: until he was Reaped. Now that he's going into a kill or be killed situation, how will he keep his secret? This contains ONLY OC's. If you don't like it, then don't read it. I suck at titles. And suck even more at summaries. It's really not as dramatic as it sounds. I promise.
1. Chapter 1

Nico was going to burn. He knew it. The heat was everywhere, and his eyes. His eyes hurt so badly. His parent's screams had been silenced long ago by the heat, by the raging flames that he could feel but couldn't see with his eyes squeezed closed. He coughed weakly, feeling the smoke searing his lungs. No one was coming; no one cared. He was only five, but he knew that no one liked him, no one liked his family. Nico began to crawl, dragging himself in a direction that seemed to be slightly cooler. He managed to wedge himself in what felt like the refrigerator before passing out.

~12 Years Later~

I stood in the sea of boys. According to Tom I stuck out like a sore thumb with my black aviator jacket. I didn't really care though. I let out a long breath. _I really hate this._ I thought, shifting slightly. It was boring. I didn't particularly care about the people who would get Reaped; why should I? They certainly didn't care about me. The only one I'd care about leaving was Tom. I yawned as the video played and the resulting speech came. Finally, the girl tribute was about to be chosen.

"Adrienne Holverson!" The name was shouted out. I furrowed my brow, trying to remember who she was. Finally a memory of a sarcastic voice came to mind. I smirked. I certainly didn't care about her. Then it was time for the boys. _Good, then I can go home and make a sandwich._ I was in the midst of figuring out what I wanted on my sandwich; turkey or ham, when I heard someone calling my name. I assumed it was Tom, yelling at me for doping off and listened for him to yell at me again. Then I realized that there were still people around me, in fact they were parted in a line leading to the stage. _Oh crap._ I thought as realization dawned.

"Nico? Where are you Nico?" The Reaper's voice rang out. I slowly, woodenly made my way to the stage, instinct somehow guiding me up the steps. Once there, a hand was placed on my shoulder.

"Nico! It is such a good day when we have two fine young people such as yourselves willing to be in the Games!" Her cheery, somewhat whiny voice grated on my ears. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. She stopped for a moment, no doubt waiting for a response.

"Well, shake hands." She commanded. I immediately stuck out my hand, not wanting to have to cover up me searching for her hand somehow. I didn't particularly feel like it today. She took my hand, shaking it firmly with a cool hand. I listened intently and could hear her heartbeat. It was calm, not racing like I had heard others in the past years. After two shakes, she let go of my hand and both of us turned to face the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your tributes!" The lady shouted. I winced, her voice played havoc with my ears. I mean, my ears are hypersensitive, but this was just plain ridiculous. I started when someone laid a hand on my shoulder: I hadn't heard them coming behind me. I relaxed though, when I remembered what happened next. The tributes got carted off to some back room where they said goodbye to close friends and family. I figured I would be spending an hour in a room by myself. There wasn't anyone who would come say goodbye to me. I sat down on a chair that was rather hard and leaned my head back with my eyes closed. A nap would be good to get ready for all the acting I was about to do. Then I heard footsteps coming down the corridor before the door squeaked open.

"Hey Nico." Tom's serious voice cut through the air. I faced towards where his voice came from.

"Hey." I greeted. I heard a rustle and figured there was another chair in the room.

"How you doing?" I asked. He snorted.

"Why are you asking me that? You're the one who could die soon." He said wryly.

"You mean, will die soon." I said with a grim smile. He sighed.

"That sense of humor is really morbid." I shrugged.

"Eh, you'll live. Even if I don't." I said with a real smile this time. I could hear him shake his head.

"Seriously, that's not something to joke about." He said sternly. I shrugged with a sigh, then leaned back in my seat.

"Crap, what have I gotten into?" I asked, everything suddenly hitting me. Tom moved next to me.

"Hey man, you're gonna get through this." He said seriously. I shook my head.

"Thanks for that, but I doubt it." I said, then cocked my head towards the door.

"Hey, sounds like your escorts are here." I said. He sighed and pulled me up out of the chair into a hug.

"Stay out of everyone's way, and put that mind of yours to work. I'm sure you can figure out some stuff there." He said before releasing me. He was standing by the door when the Peacekeepers marched in.

"Time to go." One of them said. I listened to their footsteps fading away and settled back to wait some more. He was the only person who would come see me, nobody else liked me. After probably an hour, during which I dozed off and on, I heard footsteps coming down the hall once more.

"Time to go." The Peacekeeper growled. I stood and followed his footsteps, careful to give visual cues as well. Tom always said it was creepy when I didn't, because my eyes looked dead. So I made sure to look around and blink. Soon we were joined by two other people. I assumed the person walking next to me was Adrienne. She didn't seem to want to talk, so I kept my mouth shut. _I hope they have food on this train ride._ I was so engrossed in my thoughts of food that I almost didn't notice when our escorts stopped and had to turn a little to make sure I didn't run into them.

"Welcome to your new home." A woman's voice was saying. Her voice was chirpy, but not as high as the Reaper's. That was good, since I was going to be on a long train ride with her. I absently wondered what Adrienne's voice sounded like. She hadn't spoken to me yet. I followed her in the train and heard a small intake of breath, so I assumed it was pretty impressive. I widened my eyes and tried to make myself look shocked, then looked in Adrienne's direction. This could be interesting. I heard the door _schwoop_ closed behind us before the woman spoke again.

"I'm going to go find Mac, you two can get to know each other!" She said cheerfully before leaving with another schwoop of a door. I just stood there, not wanting to trip over anything like an idiot. It wasn't until she moved and sat down that I did the same, having heard her hand brush against what I hoped was a chair. I put my hand out and ran it over the back of the chair as though admiring it. In truth, I was trying to figure out where the front was so I could sit down. I plopped down on the heavily cushioned seat with a sigh.

"So, how are you doing?" I questioned, then almost face-palmed. _You idiot, she just got Reaped! She's not doing well!_ Thankfully I was spared her answer by two people walking in the door.

"I can't believe you were planning on being late, again!" The woman was back apparently.

"I'm always late." Came a somewhat amused voice. I immediately liked this guy. He seemed to have a decent sense of humor, unlike most people. I was assuming that these two were our mentors, but I still didn't know their names. It wasn't like I kept track, or had anything to go by other than voices. And heartbeats, but those were all pretty much the same.

"So, who are you?" I questioned.

"I am your mentor, Mac." The guy said.

"And I'm Adrienne's mentor, Maggie." The girl said. I nodded.

"Cool." I said. Mac coughed.

"So, I wasn't at the Reaping, I got lost on the road of life, so you're going to have to introduce yourself to me." He said. I'm sure there was an innocent smile in there somewhere and I returned it.

"I'm Nico." I said. I hadn't used my last name since my parents died, hoping people would forget who they were. It hadn't worked so far, but it was worth a shot.

"I'm Adrienne Holverson." She speaks! I had been wondering. Of course, I'm sure she was wondering the same.

"So tell me, Mac." I started and heard everyone take a deep breath. "Are there any turkey sandwiches on this train? 'Cause I've been wanting one for awhile." At that, Mac gave a short laugh.

"I like you kid, you're funny." He said.

"There's a giant table of food right over there. What are you, blind?" Adrienne said. I bit back a sarcastic comment and shrugged.

"Well, I couldn't see if there were any sandwiches." I muttered. I could feel her stare; it was creepy.

"You do realize that you just got reaped to go to the Hunger Games, right?" She questioned. I nodded.

"Yeah, but just because they're called the Hunger Games doesn't mean we have go hungry, does it?" I threw back. She sighed.

"You are an idiot." I shrugged. I'd been called worse and didn't really care. I knew I was smart, and that was all I needed to know.

"So, you kids want to eat?" Mac's voice sounded out. It sounded odd, like he had just figured something out and was laughing about it. I was willing to bet that he was grinning. However, I was too busy concentrating on following Adrienne to the table to notice. It wasn't until I sat down that I realized something; I had no way to find the silverware without groping. Whenever I was with Tom, he'd subtly tap below where the fork was so that I could find it, and it didn't matter at home.

"Do you need something Nico?" Maggie's voice cut into my thoughts. I shook my head.

"No, I'm alright." I said, with a smile. I started inching my hand over the table, hoping everyone was listening to Mac's story and not paying any attention to me. _Water glass, better remember where that is, plate, napkin, aha! Knife! And here's the fork. _I then tried to look as though I was trying to decide what to eat.

"So, what's good?" I asked in what I hoped was a friendly tone. Apparently it worked since I heard something slap down on my plate.

"Try that, it's pretty good." Mac said. Again with the weird tone. I smiled.

"Thanks!" I grabbed my fork and started eating. Whatever it was, was better than what I usually ate. I generally just grabbed stuff and put it in the microwave, hoping it would turn out ok. Occasionally it did. When it didn't, Tom would take me out.

It didn't take long for us to get to the Capital, and when we did the screaming crowds nearly burst my eardrums.

"Why can't they cheer quieter?" I grumbled, trying to hear the sound of Adrienne's footsteps ahead of me. Dang she walked quietly. When someone's hand came down on my shoulder, I jumped a mile high.

"Warn a person, will ya?" I fumed.

"Heh, don't worry kid, your secret's safe with me. I'll help you out." Mac's voice said softly enough that only I could hear him. I froze and only made it inside because he pushed me. The only thought running through my head was _What the hell just happened?_


	2. Chapter 2

I did write this for a contest awhile back, so if something doesn't make sense, that's why.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games. Just Nico. He's my brain baby.

* * *

A few hours later, I had been poked, prodded, and had my hair cut. I personally didn't think it needed to be cut, but what did I know? Apparently the new haircut made me look older. I'd also gotten a tattoo on my left cheek, near my eye, and an earring. According to the stylists that also made me look older. I rubbed at my ear, which still stung. I was now in a room somewhere in the building, waiting for them to bring me my official outfit for the night. I mostly just wanted to get it over with: it wasn't like I would see the outfit anyways. A few minutes of leg swinging and humming later, the door opened.

"Alright, here are your clothes!" The stylist chirped. I hesitantly reached and took the bundle, then stiffened, noticing immediately what was missing.

"Where is my jacket?" I growled. They had taken it from me when I first came in, saying something about cleaning it, but it wasn't here now.

"Well, we decided that you didn't really need it." He said. I could hear his hand moving the air, as though brushing off my complaints. I raised an eyebrow and dropped the bundle of clothes on the floor.

"What are you doing?" He cried, snatching them up. I shrugged.

"I decided I didn't really need them." I said, unconcerned. He growled a little, then sighed.

"Fine. I'll get your jacket." He grumbled before stomping out. I smiled. These people were easy to manipulate. I hopped off the table and started dressing, hoping I was putting on the clothes right. Apparently I was, since when the stylist came back in he merely set my jacket down before leaving again. I quickly finished dressing before shrugging the jacket on over it. The soft leather felt good against my skin, and it felt less stiff. Maybe they really had cleaned it.

* * *

After getting yet more beauty treatments, I was taken to a waiting area. I stood in the corner, listening to conversations and getting the lay of the land.

"-need allies, maybe we should ask." That's not interesting, considering I don't want allies. More people who know I'm blind? No thanks!

"-train crash, they died coming." That was somewhat interesting. Everyone was talking about the same things, or was silent. All in all I counted twenty four heart beats, apparently six were late.

"Hi." I jumped about two feet. Make that five late. Did Adrienne not have a heartbeat or something? I turned to where I hoped I would face her.

"Hey." I replied, trying to lean against the wall and look nonchalant about jumping. Unfortunately, the wall was two foot farther away than I thought and I ended up doing a weird hop skip to find it without falling. I swear I could hear her thoughts, and she was thinking that I was an idiot. Honestly, I couldn't argue.

"What's with your face?" She asked, shifting a little.

"What's with yours?" Ok, didn't mean for that to pop out. "Er, I mean, they did a tattoo. Something about looking older."

"That's weird, they usually play up the younger kids." She commented. I bristled.

"I'm seventeen." I growled.

"Seriously? You look about thirteen, maybe fifteen with the tattoo and earring." She said. I rubbed my ear again. The stupid thing still hurt. The tattoo hadn't hurt at all, they used some sort of special equipment, but there was no getting around the fact that they had to stick a needle through my earlobe.

"I don't look that young." I grumbled before we both fell silent. Before I knew it, we were being loaded into chariots, during which there were a few iffy moments for me. Once inside, I gripped the handlebar as tight as possible. The ground moving under my feet was not fun, especially as I couldn't even see where we were going. Soon the fresh night air was flowing against my face, and the cheers of the crowd were hurting my ears. I grinned anyways and waved a little. _These people could keep you alive. _I reminded myself. It didn't take long for us to get to the end of our little ride, at which point I finally relaxed. The president started making some sort of speech which I promptly tuned out in favor of thinking about my bed. My wonderful, soft, comfortable bed. I really hoped I could go to sleep soon, considering that tomorrow was training. I was definitely going to need a good night's sleep for that. And a plan to avoid the camouflage booth. A blind guy trying to paint camouflage? Yeah right. The chariot moving jerked me out my thoughts and I grabbed the handlebar again before plastering on another smile. The crowd started cheering again and was still going at it when I went to bed that night.

* * *

The next morning I was standing in front of the door to the training room, trying to work up the nerve to go in. Adrienne and most of the other tributes had already gone in, with me stepping aside to let them. I just couldn't figure out how to manage completely new surroundings with no guidance whatsoever. Especially as being clumsy would likely be deadly. I stepped to the side when I heard footsteps coming, still not ready to go in, but willing to allow others.

"I figured you'd still be here." Mac said, even his voice was smug. I stayed silent, there wasn't much to say to that.

"Here, take this." My mentor shoved something in my hand. It was a round cylinder with a button on it. One side was flat and smooth, the other side had a small hole in it.

"What is it?" I asked, still fingering it.

"Think of it as your new eyes. Hold down the button and point it forwards. It will vibrate when something's in front of you." He explained. I nodded and pushed the button, pointing the end with a hole at him. The tube vibrated slightly and I grinned."Thanks!" I said, hiding the tube in my sleeve and pushing the door open. Grunts, clashes, and a smoky smell greeted me inside. This would certainly be interesting. I decided that learning how to start a fire would definitely be a good idea at this point, so I headed towards the smoky smell.

An hour later, I threw down the sticks.

"Stupid fire." I muttered, throwing a kick at the sticks for good measure. _Guess I'll just use matches._ I made my way out of the booth and wandered with the help of my handy new "eye". I had already decided to name it Tom, since he was my old eyes. Walking aimlessly, I realized that the ground under my feet was soft and cushy, like a mat. _Wait. A mat. Oh shi-_

"Hey kid!" A girl's voice rang out. She sounded like she would prefer bashing my head in to playing with dolls.

"Uh…" Was the only thing I could make come out of my mouth. I could hear her walking closer and I cringed slightly.

"You're on my mat." She growled in my ear. I gulped.

"Er, sorry?" I offered. Apparently that didn't appease her, since she threw a punch in the next second. I barely managed to duck, her fist brushed my hair. _Bad idea! Mayday, mayday!_ I knew better than to get in a fight, I was hopeless at hand-to-hand combat. Tom had given up on trying to teach me when he broke my wrist. That hurt a lot. I managed to avoid her next punch, but couldn't see or hear the knee to my stomach. I felt it though. I doubled over in pain.

"Little boy still hasn't even thrown a punch." She sneered at me. I slowly straightened, hoping she wouldn't take the opportunity to beat me any more. Apparently it was my move, since she was just standing there. _Run!_ The little voice inside me cried. And I obeyed it, tripping over a few random things, but I managed to get across the room, far, far away from both the mat and girl. From now on I needed to stay away from people. Of any kind. I finally ended up at the knot tying booth, where no one else had gone. It was interesting, only listening to the man's instructions and trying to manipulate the rope into the knot. The teacher said it looked good though, so I was happy enough. Plus rope tying was not painful, unlike walking around.

* * *

I had forgotten about the training scores. As I sat on the hard bench, waiting for my turn, I had to wonder how. After all, Mac had reminded me several times. I just wasn't listening this morning when he told me. I guess that would have been helpful information. I sighed and tried to figure out what I was going to do.

"Adrienne Holverson." The announcer was obviously from the Capital, I could tell that much from her voice. I waited until I heard the girl next to me get up.

"Adrienne." I heard her head turn.

"Yes?" She questioned, sounding somewhat surprised.

"Good luck." I smiled.

"You too." I could almost hear her smile before she walked through the door. I leaned back against the wall, wondering what I was going to do. _I bet they'd be impressed if I did it blindfolded._ For once my inner voice had a good idea. I quickly tore both of the sleeves off of my long sleeve shirt and tied them together, making a halfway decent blindfold. I held that in my hand until the announcer called my name.

"Nico Daimon!" She chirped and I scowled. _Where did they find my last name?_ I wondered. I certainly didn't advertise it. Nevertheless, I stood and followed her in. The room felt strange without a lot of people in it. I tied the blindfold on and stood still for a moment, acting as though I was getting used to it before going to where I knew the weapons rack was and making a great show of feeling for a slingshot. Strangely enough, the room smelled like burnt soup, lemon, and was that Corkspite? That would have been useful. By now the judges were all talking and I could smell some food that seemed really good. I really hoped there would be food back at the room. Once I had found the slingshot and ammo, I went to where I had heard guys chopping away at dummies. It didn't take me long to find them, set up in a circle, which served my purposes perfectly. I slowly walked around them, touching each dummy before standing in the middle.

_Whump._ The judges fell silent after my first hit.

_Whump. Whump. Whump._ My hits were starting to get a rhythm to it, and I enjoyed it. After going around the circle twice with only two misses, I decided that was enough and gave a little bow before walking out the door, not taking off the blindfold until I was outside. _Well that was fun._

That night, Mac and I sat on the couch to wait for my scores. It was just my luck that the actual scores weren't announced, apparently there was a large number flashed on the screen and then the 'announcers' discussed it. Without ever actually mentioning what the score was. Jerks.

"C'mon Mac, tell me what it was!" I whined, just wanting to go to bed. Of course, the sooner I went to bed, the sooner tomorrow would come. And tomorrow was an interview with what's-his-face.

"Nah, you don't need to know." I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"That is so not fair!" I punched him in the gut and listened to the satisfying _whoosh _of air.

"Dang kid, you pack a whallop!" He wheezed out, "fine, you got an eleven. Adrienne got a nine." He got up and walked away, muttering something about an ice pack. I just sat there. A score of eleven was good. It meant more sponsors. More sponsors meant a greater chance of me getting out alive. I grinned. This was good.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello to the few people reading this! Unfortunately, this is as far as I've prewritten, so I'll be updating even less regularly. But on the bright side, this is a five page chapter, so not bad!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, just Nico. And Mac. Mac is mine.**

The next morning I awoke to something hard hitting my chest, knocking the breath out of me.

"What the-" Note: flailing only means I roll off the bed onto the hard floor.

"Ouch." I groaned, glad that whatever had been thrown at me hadn't fallen on top of me. Then I heard chuckling and glared towards the door.

"Good job kid, you've officially won spaz of the year award." Of course it was Mac, who else?

"What was that?" I growled, struggling to stand. Of course, some of my sheets had fallen with me and were now intent on holding me down.

"A book. I want you to read it." Mac replied. I waved a hand in front of my face.

"Kind of a problem with that, genius."

"That's why you have this." He threw something else, this time it landed in my lap. It was about as wide as a book page, but not as long. One side of it was smooth metal, then other felt like glass.

"What is it?" I questioned.

"Your reading glasses. Just run it over the page and it'll read it aloud for you. That book is about plants and wildlife that might appear in the arena. Hope you've got a good memory kid." The door shut after his little speech, leaving me in the empty room with the book. I glared at where I thought it was before shrugging on a shirt. That was definitely not how I wanted to spend my last days in the Capitol. I was thinking of sleeping, actually. I sighed and sat down on the bed, feeling around the rumpled covers. It didn't take long for my hand to hit something hard and I dragged the hardback over in front of me before flipping to the first page.

It only took a few pages for me to decided that I needed food before 'reading' anymore. I ran a hand through my hair before stepping out into the hallway, my hand trailing the wall as I walked along.

"Why do you do that?" Once again, Adrienne made me jump.

"How do you keep doing that?" I demanded.

"Surprising you?" It's obviously not hard." She commented. I could hear her step closer and I turned to face her.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes.

"You never answered my question." She reminded me. I frowned.

"Oh, running my hand down the wall?" I shrugged, "yeah, I guess so." In fact, I always did that, it helped me to know where I was and where I was going. But she didn't need to know that. Ever. I turned, giving a small wave.

"I'm hungry, so see you later." I said, continuing to walk. Of course she kept walking right next to me.

"So, does Maggie have you training?" I blurted out after a few moments of awkward silence. Why in the world did the dining room have to be so far away? She didn't talk for a few moments, and if it weren't for the fact that I could hear her next to me, I would have sworn that she'd left.

"Just because we're from the same district doesn't mean that I'll tell you everything about me." She said. The anger in her voice was thick and I winced at it.

"Didn't ask you to, geez." I retorted. The rest of the trip to the dining room was taken in silence, just our footsteps and the brush of my hand on the wall. When we cam in, Maggie and Mac were talking softly, something about a date and her saying fat chance.

"Hey Mac, muffin me!" I called, cupping my hands. In the next instant, a warm muffin was in my hands, wafting its wonderful blueberry scent up to my nose. I took a huge bite out of it and was instantly in heaven.

"Seriously, these are the best muffins in the world. I could just eat these for the rest of my life." I said, holding it up. I heard Mac chuckle while Maggie sighed.

"Don't talk with your mouth full kid." Mac said. I swallowed, then stuck my tongue out before taking another bit bite.

"Mature." Adrienne's voice muttered. I rolled my eyes again. This coming from the girl who got upset when I asked her about training.

"Here kid, you're going to choke yourself." A glass of something cold nudged my hand and I took it gratefully, taking a swig before I realized what it was. The sweet muffin made the orange juice even more sour, and I ended up make a face.

"So, how's the book?" Mac asked. I shrugged.

"Boring. Probably useful, but boring." I said, then managed to sit down at the table, setting my juice down on it.

"Yeah, well, keep reading. It'll help." Mac ordered. I frowned.

"Yeah, yeah old man." I muttered.

"Who are you calling old man?" Mac spluttered, "I'm not that much older than you!"

"Then why do you always call me kid?" I grinned.

"Cause you are one!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Mac, quit that, you're setting a bad example!" Maggie cut into our argument. I grinned.

"Yeah Mac, you're setting a bad example." I mocked. Another muffin hit my head.

"Don't be so disrespectful." Mac admonished me. I shrugged and picked up the muffin, taking a bite.

"Mmmm, so good." I said, forgetting the mock argument. I stood, grabbing my juice.

"Anyways, I should go read. What's happening today?" I asked.

"Your interview is tonight, so try to at least act like a decent person." Mac reminded me. I waved him off as I started to walk out.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, old man." Actually, he had every reason to worry. I had issues talking to people, especially ones that I didn't know. Tom had once said that I was 'as social as a rabid bear that just woke up from hibernation.' I just never really saw the point in being nice to people when they were rarely nice to me. I sighed and went back to my reading. The interview would come when it came.

I was far into dreamland, a wonderful dream in which I was the only person at a huge feast. Of course, such things never last.

"Stupid kid, wake up!" Mac's voice intruded into my dream. I sat up instantly, rubbing at my face that no doubt had an outline of the book imprinted onto it.

"Uh, wh-what's going on?" I managed. I got a faceful of cloth for my efforts.

"Hurry up and change, your interview's in ten minutes." He said crossly. I obeyed quickly.

"I thought you were always late." I commented as I followed his footsteps down the hall. He chuckled.

"Not for the important stuff. You sure pick the worst times to sleep kid. No time to tell you what to say or anything, just have to wing it. Try not to insult Caesar too much. I'm sure that will be difficult enough for you though." He led me through a door, and suddenly I could feel sunlight coming at me from all directions, but no wind or anything. I frowned.

"Where are we?" I asked after checking to make sure no one else was there.

"Skywalk going to the studio. Can't have the tributes walking the streets, it's too dangerous." Mac replied, keeping up his brisk pace.

"I bet it's a great view." I said, somewhat wistfully. I missed being able to see stuff like that.

"I've seen better." He said. I rolled my eyes and continued to follow tamely, feeling the path go downhill while the sunlight slowly faded. Noise started to come in, and it grew in proportions until I could hear Adrienne's voice answering a man's questions while a crowd cheered them on.

"Good, you two are here. You do realize how important the interview is, right?" Maggie scolded. I shrugged.

"Sorry, I fell asleep." I said, not sounding repentant at all. She sighed.

"Well, Adrienne is almost finished, you're up next, go wait by the curtain." She ordered me.

"Bossy." I muttered, following Mac to stand closer to the stage, judging from the increase in noise.

"You have no idea, kid." Mac chuckled.

"Well good luck Adrienne, I'm sure there are lot of people out there rooting for you." A man, I assumed Caesar, said from the stage. Adrienne thanked him, then her footsteps started towards me.

"Good luck." She muttered as she brushed past me.

"And now we have our other District 3 tribute, Nico Daimen!" Caesar announced. Mac gave me a little push and I stumbled onto the stage; apparently there were stairs leading up to it that I was not aware of.

"Ah, Nico, please, have a seat." Caesar offered, shaking my hand. I tried to smile as I carefully navigated the stage, hoping the awkwardness I felt wasn't apparent to everyone watching. I managed to sit down on a highly uncomfortable chair, feeling for all the world like this was an interrogation.

"So Nico, how are you today?" Was Caesar's first question. I tried to remember what Mac had told me, if he'd told me anything, and finally decided to just go for the cute little kid thing.

"Great! I love it here. To be honest though, I just woke up from a nap." I said the last part in a lower voice, leaning towards the interviewer. He laughed, just a little and the audience joined in.

"I have to admit, a nap is a wonderful thing." He said, then continued his questioning. "Do you have any siblings back home?" I had anticipated this question, and actually prepared a response, looking down at the floor.

"No, my parents died when I was little. I have a best friend though, he's almost like a brother." I said softly. I got exactly the response I was looking for, I could practically hear the mental 'aws' going through the audience.

"I'm very sorry for your loss, Nico. It's good that you have a friend like that though. What's his name?" I could almost pretend that Caesar cared, and I perked up, trying to keep up the mask.

"Oh, his name's Tom. Tom Mason. He always helped me train, 'cause I'm not very good at it. He'll help me cook too, because his mom shows him how and well, mine can't." I tried to look a little pathetic, but only a little; I still have my pride.

At least a little bit.

"So do you live with Tom and his parents?" Caesar asked next. I shook my head.

"No, I live above an abandoned store. The orphanage didn't let me stay any longer, so I had to get my own place." I said, playing the poor orphan up for all it was worth. In truth, I left the orphanage when I was ten; I was tired of all the people hovering over me.

"Well, I'm sure you have a girl waiting for you at home." Caesar said. I let the question hang for a moment, feeling the anticipation, before shaking my head again.

"Nope, 'fraid not." I said. I'd seen him do this in other interviews, probe for relationships and stir up the audience's pity. Caesar shifted in his seat, and I had a feeling he was leaning towards me.

"I have time for one more question. Tell me Nico, what is one thing you want to say to the audience?" I played with my fingers, like I was nervous-okay, maybe I was-before looking out at the audience.

"Um, I just want to say that I know there's a lot of other people here, who are stronger, and have more of a chance, but-" now I let out my most confident grin, "don't discount the underdog!" And now they were eating out of my hand, cheering and clapping so loudly it hurt my ears, but I just stood, grin still firmly in place as Caesar told me good luck. I waved before walking off the stage. And didn't trip over the stair this time.

The rug got me though.

"Good job kid, I didn't think you had it in you." Mac said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged.

"I have to playact a lot. It's not that hard." I said, even though it was and I was tired, even though I had just taken a nap.

"Well, you certainly milked it. Let's hope it helped." Mac said, starting to usher me back down the corridor.

"By the way, you can fight, right?" He sounded like he had wanted to ask that question for awhile. I shrugged.

"Let's put it this way: my hand-to-hand sucks, I can't shoot a bow and arrow, slingshots don't generally do much permanent damage, and that's kind of iffy anyways, and my swordplay, well, isn't the best." I recited the list of things that Tom had attempted to train me in. Then I smiled. "But like I told everyone out there, don't count out the underdog. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve."

"Like what?" Mac's voice was skeptical.

"You'll see, won't you?" I teased him, before just about running into a doorframe.

"If you don't kill yourself first." He muttered.

"Heard that!" I sing-songed. I was in a pretty good mood, with my interview going so well. He was silent for a moment, even stopped walking.

"How sensitive is your hearing?" He questioned. I shrugged,

"I dunno, never had it tested or anything. It's sensitive enough though." I replied. I didn't really care, but he grabbed my arm and led me to an empty room, plopping me down on a chair.

"Ok kid, what can you hear?" Mac demanded. I sighed and closed my eyes, a useless gesture but it made me feel like I was concentrating more. A sudden influx of sounds hit me, ones that I usually blocked out so as not to get overwhelmed.

"Um, there's a bug under your chair, a really big one if I'm picking it up. Adrienne and Maggie are upstairs, talking about, okay, do girls seriously use seduction in the games? That's just weird… Anyways, there're two, no three, Avoxes in the kitchen making dinner, I'm hearing the plates, and someone's vacuuming. There are still people cheering somewhere too, not sure what about though. Uh, there's some other background noise, but I'm not really sure what it all is…" I opened my eyes and leaned back in the cushy chair.

"How's that?" I asked, then had to bat his hand out of my face. "What the heck, you trying to hit me or something?"

"How'd you know where my hand was?" Mac questioned. I shrugged.

"I could feel and hear the air moving around my face." I answered, then decided to ask my own question, "how'd you know I'm, you know…" I trailed off.

"You didn't stare at me." Mac answered, "you're not the only one with restrained senses: I lost an eye in the games. Everyone I've ever met has stared at my eye patch. You didn't, and you didn't even look at the food table when I pointed at it. It was pretty simple, really." It was really right then when I remembered that Mac had won the Games, and had likely won them through brains. I frowned a little, wondering how to phrase my next question.

"Can I, uh, feel your face?" I asked. Yep, that sounded about as weird as I though it would. I heard clothes rustling, then he grabbed my hand, bringing it up to his face. I brought my other one up to join it and slowly started to explore. His mouth was fixed in a crooked grin, something that I had a feeling was permanent. His nose was slightly crooked, no doubt it had been broken at some point or another. I kept going higher, and sure enough there was a silky fabric where his right eye should have been. Even further up was his hair. It went every which way, sticking straight up in spots. It felt even crazier than mine, which was really saying something considering that the most I did to mine was run a hand through it every now and then.

"You about done?" Mac asked. I nodded, pulling away.

"Yeah. Thanks." I said. Now I had a mental image of one thing here.

"No problem. See you later kid." Mac said gruffly, getting up and walking out, closing the door behind him. I listened to his footsteps fade away, considering getting up and grabbing some food, but decided it would be far too much effort. Instead I curled up where I was and went back to sleep.


End file.
